Eight Ways to Become College and Career Ready It’s never too early to explore your child’s academic interests and reinforce his or her strengths. Here are eight ways to get your child started on the path to college or a career: Stay informed. Log in to arisparentlink.org to find out how your child is doing in school and make sure his or her grades are recorded accurately. Make some dates. Place important dates, such as application deadlines, parentteacher conferences, grade 3-8 tests and Regents exams, on your calendar. For more dates, search NYC.gov for Calendar. Encourage your child to sign up for extracurricular activities. This reflects well on college applications and helps reinforce healthy relationships with classmates and adults at the school. If your child is already signed up, brainstorm ways he or she can take on more responsibilities and leadership roles.
1
2 3
Set goals. Explore careerzone.ny.gov and bls.gov/ooh to set college and career goals with your child. Get your child to class. Showing up is half the battle. Make sure your child gets to class on time, every day, to improve his or her chances for academic success. Improve your child’s organizational skills. Help your child develop time management and note keeping skills. Students with these abilities are much more likely to thrive. Help your child bounce back. If your child has had an academic setback or is struggling in a class, talk about ways to conquer those challenges. The ability to persist is a key trait of successful college grads. If you’re concerned your child is falling behind, talk to his or her teacher. Explore college options. Research schools that fit into your child’s interests and career goals, and select “reach,” “target,” and “safety” schools.
4 5
6 7
8
For more information, search NYC.gov for College and Career Readiness.
How the Common Core Standards Improve Learning This year, New York City students are doing more course work aligned to the new Common Core standards. The standards describe what students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade need to know and be able to do at each grade level to graduate from high school ready for college and careers. The sample lessons below show different ways teachers are using the Common Core standards to get students to think more critically and use evidence to explain their thinking.
Submit Your Art for the 2013 Cover Design Competition New York City public high school students interested in art and design can participate in the 2013 Cover Design Competition. The winning design will be featured on the Department of Last year’s winning Education’s 2013design by Alana 2014 Directory of Wong-DeJesus from the High School of NYC Public High Art & Design Schools. The Directory is distributed to hundreds of thousands of students and their families across the city. The competition is organized in partnership with the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and is an excellent opportunity for high school students to work with a real-world client. Students also learn how to develop their designs with a professional designer, and gain practical creative experience they can take with them after high school. Students interested in submitting designs should think about their experiences as public school students in New York City, and how they might express their ideas creatively in the form of a cover design. Submissions will be accepted beginning January 28. To learn more about the contest and to submit your design, search NYC.gov for Cover Design.
Dilemma. Students will use their new understanding of argument and the food industry to write their own articles on topics such as fast food and factory farms.
Q Sure, you think your dog is smart, but are
animals truly intelligent? English language learners at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn used this question to explore intelligence. Students read articles that both taught them about the topic and improved Q At the Scholars’ Academy in Queens, their English language, reading, and writing seventh-grade students used iPads to solve Q Is your voice heard? To answer this skills. They used evidence from the articles Common Core-aligned math problems. question, fifth graders at P.S. 204 in the to support their arguments in essays they Working in groups on iPads, students Bronx are studying the formation of the U.S. wrote. Using evidence from text to support developed algebraic expressions of realgovernment and reading the Bill of Rights and arguments is an important part of the life situations. For example, they wrote an other historical documents. To support their expression to figure out the area of a basketball Common Core Standards. opinions, the students are using evidence from Q Eighth-grade students at I.S. 61 in court. Students emailed screen shots of their their readings in classroom debates and letters work to each other and used their iPads to Staten Island are solving complex realthey are writing to their members of Congress. share feedback. This was followed by a class world problems. First, they are taking data Q Middle school students at the School for discussion. from a variety of sources, including a class Global Leaders in Manhattan are learning experiment. Then, they are analyzing the data how writers shape their arguments by reading through graphs, tables, and equations. The To view Chancellor Walcott’s webinar opinion pieces and books about the food idea is to provide students with different ways on the Common Core, industry. For example, they are reading the to think critically about relationships between visit learndoe.org/chancellor. New York Times bestseller, The Omnivore’s two items or pieces of information.
JANUARY 2013